Midnight Nightmares
by Storyboard Sketch
Summary: Series of one shots. He's watched her sleeping before...but never when she's having a nightmare. Events in the nightmare inspired by "Night Protector" series on dA. WARNING: slight Mikey x OC pairing. Takes place during "Timed Worlds"
1. Midnight Nightmares

Mikey walked into the garage, having noticed that Ella had not returned to the main room all night. He found her fast asleep at Donnie's work desk, pieces of circuitry and random papers scattered all around her. He smiled and let out a quiet laugh at the sight of seeing the green skinned human like this. True, he knew who she was now but…something in his heart wouldn't let him move on. So she was from another turtle family in another world…that was fine and all but…he could never tell her the truth of how he felt. Perhaps one day he would be able to move on, but for now all he could do was be by Ella's side until the day she had to leave.

_Another dream…no…a nightmare…_

_Usually her dreams were filled with strange visions of other times and possibilities of other worlds. Ella believed this to be the work of her own chi powers, not as great as her father's but still enough to give her glimpses into other worlds. _

_Some of these worlds were fun and scarcely different from her own aside from names, genders, or which side of the line the others were on. She had seen places where the Shredder was the good master, determined to keep the city safe from a wicked Splinter who sought to bring devastation to all humanity. Ella had caught glimpses of a world where those she knew were all reversed in gender and thus their names were far different most times. Sometimes, those she saw could see her and speak to her….other moments she was but a ghost, watching from the outside. Perhaps, the distance between her and these worlds were the cause of such drastic changes. _

_Then again….most were merely visions conjured up by her own mind. So in this moment…this hellish nightmare before her, she could only pray it was a mere vision and not some cruel alternate reality._

_Before her, a sea of blood soaked the pavement of the back street. The scent of death hung heavy around her as the one responsible stood across from her. She knew not how he did this…only that he could not be allowed to continue. For the bodies of the Foot Clan were many around her, but those that harmed her heart most were the fallen Donatello and Raphael. Wether they were still alive or not, she did not know. Only that she had to stop the rogue turtle in front of her before he harmed Leonardo again as well. The scars on all of them were clear as day even underneath their fresh wounds._

_She could feel her own weapons in her hands, as well as the weight they now carried with them. For HE was the one who had given one to her._

_As the betrayer raised his bladed fist to strike, he found his blow blocked by the very weapons he once carried himself. She glared up into the blue eyes of the one who had become a stranger. For Ella knew this traitor…all too well…even if here he did not know her._

_"Mikey….I will not fight you" She whispered, unsure if he would hear her. "Not now…and not ever….stop this madness….please"_

_The glare that came from him was one of hatred as he tried to push her off of his blade so he could get at Leo, but he found that no matter how hard he pushed…he could not move her. Ella barely felt the force of his strength as the rest of this scene faded away around her leaving only the darkness of the shadows._

_She pushed him away, looking into the face of the one she had once cared about most. Ella believed he said something to her…but could not make out his words. She wanted to cry…but the continuing onslaught of blades would not give her the chance. _

_"Please….stop this Mikey…." She begged of the dark figure who continued to attack her. "I don't want to fight you…."_

A soft whimper from the sleeping half-mutant got his attention. Just now did Mikey notice that Ella's eyes were clenched shut as if to block out the horrid sights that her dream was sending to her. Her very position was curled up slightly, like she was trying to defend herself from the nightmare.

He knew he should wake her but he also wondered for a brief moment…what it was that frightened her so.

"….no…..please stop…" She was muttering in her sleep, drawing his concern and attention. "Mikey…"

Hearing his own name widen Mikey's eyes, her nightmare was revolving around him?

_For as often as his blades must have hit her…she felt no pain, no warm rush of blood over her skin. Such was the comfort of the dream form, no harm would come to one in this state…but it did not comfort her fear._

_As she looking into the eyes of this stranger, she wondered what had become of her dear friend._

_"This isn't real…" She reminded herself, desperate for some comfort. "It can't be real… you have his face… his eyes… his weapons even….but you don't have his heart. The heart of a true warrior….you do not possess it. No, you have the blackened heart of a murderer…"_

_She thought he said something but again heard nothing…until a burst of light entered her nightmare, causing the black masked turtle to shield his eyes._

"Ella! Ella wake up!"

_"Mikey?" That was his voice, the one who cared to come when she was upset._

"Come on!" He sounded so worried and scared for her, she forced herself to pull out of the dream. "Please, you're scaring me."

"Mm…." She lifted her head up to look at the one who had woken her. "Mikey?"

"You alright?" He asked her, his large blue eyes filled with concern. "You were muttering to yourself and….you were scared. That frightened me too…"

She had no words to respond to him, so she simply threw her arms around his neck and held him close. This was real, not that awful nightmare that her deepest fears had created. He was here, right there because she had needed him. Ella didn't know how he always knew when she needed him most but…she was glad he was here now. Not that she would ever say it aloud but…she had always been glad to have him around. His jokes could be a bit corny sometimes but, they were always just the thing to get a smile back on her face. She could never tell him the truth…her family would never understand and neither would his.

Mikey blinked at the sudden action from Ella, but he understood it all the same. The nightmare must have been pretty terrible to make Ella suddenly silent. Normally, she was just as goofy as he was sometimes. He held the shivering kunoichi close to his chest, trying his hardest to calm those tremors of terror. He didn't like seeing her upset, not his friend. Ella was the one who bandaged him up whenever he hurt himself, wether by falling or battle. She had been there for him, even when his brothers were being a bit too harsh on him…Ella was the one who stood up for Mikey. No wonder his heart hadn't moved on…

"Nightmare?" He asked her a simple question, getting a gentle nod in response. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Just….just promise me something…" She needed only one thing to calm her fears.

"What?" He looked at her, seeing the pleading in her face before she even spoke again.

"Mikey," It hurt her to say this but, she had to be sure. "Promise me, you'll never betray us….please….promise me that."

So that was what her nightmare was about…Mikey could never see that happening but, if it brought Ella peace…

"I promise Ella," He took her hands in his own to make sure she had his full hearted honesty. "That will never happen."

"Thank you…." She closed her eyes again in relief.

"Come on…lets get you to bed." By 'bed' he meant the couch in the main room. "You need the sleep."

He wasn't comfortable to leave her alone, not when a nightmare had caused Ella such distress. So, he sat on the couch with her. Watching late night television until they both fell asleep, leaning against each other for comfort in the darkness of midnight.


	2. Midnight Visions

And the dream had been going so well…

* * *

_…most of them had fallen and yet here he stood, about to lay the final blow into the one he once called brother. That was when he saw Leonardo's eyes, so filled with fear and hatred, shift to something that stood behind Midnight instead changing to looks of shock and confusion._

_But Midnight knew this game…he wasn't about to fall for a simple trick like that when his victory was so close. However as he raised his blade for the final blow he felt the darkness of Nigtorra leave him suddenly as if banished by some greater force that even she couldn't fend off. He didn't notice at first though as he brought down his fist for what should have been a killing blow…. but he didn't get the satisfaction of that deed preformed._

_His blades were blocked from reaching their goal by the same weapons he long thought destroyed. His own nunchaku in the hands of a new ninja that now stood in between him and his ultimate goal. He took in her features, her skin was the most obvious thing about her: green as the grass in the city park, but smooth around those sapphire eyes that seemed to stare right through him. For a moment, he thought he was looking into a horrible mirror as his past self…then he realized that this ninja was a female human…no…probably only half human if those four fingers on each hand were any proof of that._

_He glared at this kunoichi, he should know her…something about how familiar she was nagged at him, telling him that he HAD to know her. Still however, this one's name escaped him. However…she knew his, or at least what it once was._

_"Mikey…" That name made him stare at her even harder as she spoke to him, a look of pleading and something he couldn't place filling her eyes. "I will not fight you. Not now… and not ever… please stop this madness."_

_Something inside of him started the moment he heard her voice, wanting to come out after so long of being locked away, but the new him decided to ignore it as he tried to move her out of his way by throwing her away from him. His strength failed him though as if…as if he couldn't find the strength to move the girl aside. Instead it was she who pushed him off of her weapons._

_"Who are you?!" He demanded but she didn't answer him as he came back, lashing out with all he had yet…not making a scratch on her._

_Her quiet pleas for him to stop came out in whispers as she fought with him. Midnight found himself slightly tempted to take pity on the girl as she blocked what blows she could, still calling him by that name: Mikey. _

_Eventually he grew tired of trying to hurt her and took a step back in alarm. There was no way he hadn't missed her all those times, then he felt another tug from something deep inside him as he saw tears beginning to form in her eyes. He tried to ignore it…to push it back down, but the darkness that used to be in his soul wasn't there right now. It had melted away in her presence, causing part of a lost child that he once was to come up to give her the chance to speak to him…and he listened._

_"This isn't real…" He heard her mutter in a futile attempt at comforting herself. "It can't be real… you have his face… his eyes… his weapons even….but you don't have his heart. The heart of a true warrior…you do not possess it. No, you have the blackened heart of a murderer…"_

_"I know…." He heard another voice say, later realizing that it had come from him in that old tone…_

_"Ella!" A bright light that came from behind the kunoichi forced him to shield his eyes as the voice that once belonged to him spoke again, it was Michelangelo's voice, not Midnight's. "Ella wake up!"_

_He could sense the fear in Michelangelo's voice as he pulled his friend back from the darkness. Midnight blinked away the sting of the light that had attacked his eyes and found himself looking down at a sleepy kunoichi, Ella, as she woke up to Michelangelo's worried face. He watched as the girl flung her arms around the turtle's neck, tears streaming from her eyes as he held her gently. Midnight blinked, those bandages on Michelangelo's hands…he knew he wasn't THAT good at making small ties like that. One look at Ella's hands and he knew that she had been the one to patch him up. Maybe if this girl had been around for Midnight he wouldn't have had to end up where he was now. _

_"Nightmare?" His gaze was directed back to his double as he wiped away a drying tear from Ella's face with a thumb, getting a nod in response from her. "Is there anything I can do to help?"_

_He watched the two interact, gentle hands…unscarred by the cruelty that could come from growing up ninja shook as the kunoichi was held lovingly in the arms of the orange masked terrapin that Midnight once owned the name of. That was when Midnight understood what separated his old self from the one he was seeing now, love from someone who truly cared was returned to him. He watched them as they gathered together on the bench in the pit, the girl fell asleep first and Midnight gazed in stunned curiosity as this Michelangelo looked around him to make sure his brothers weren't lurking in the shadows before shyly giving the one called Ella a kiss on her fore head. _

* * *

When the darkness rushed back he tried to be indifferent to what he had seen, but the sealed part of him continued to scream at him to go back and make the girl smile. He always said to Karai that Michelangelo was dead and had been replaced by Midnight…but the truth was, Michelangelo…no, Mikey was alive deep inside him. He just refused to go back to that place…that place that made him weak. A flashback to the girl from his dream came to him suddenly,

* * *

_"Promise me you will never betray us." She had asked of his double._

_Without hesitation, Mikey had answered her. "I promise Ella, that will never happen."_

* * *

A promise that Midnight had never made, and could never keep….so why did it feel like he had broken a sacred bond? He shook off the feeling and took up his blades…he had to get back to work.

However even though he didn't show it, he heard another voice in the back of his mind speak to him.

_"Let me out…"_ Came the timid whisper from the past. _"It's not too late to keep that promise…Please…. Let me out…"_

Midnight clenched his teeth and pushed the voice away from him. _"I can't…. I don't even remember how…."_

To this day however he still had one thing in common with the owner of the other voice…he didn't like seeing anyone cry.


End file.
